A New Mexico girl who claimed a stylist on a TV miniseries cut her hair without regard for the religious beliefs of Mescalero Apaches has lost her $300,000 emotional distress case after the tribe removed her from its membership rolls.

“[D]ue to Christina Ponce's disenrollment from the Mescalero Tribe, Plaintiffs no longer have an injury or an interest in this litigation,” Turner Films argued in a motion for summary judgment which a federal magistrate judge granted earlier this month.

An unnamed stylist took the scissors to Ponce, then 8, while she was working as an extra on TNT's "Into the West." According to tribal tradition, she and her parents alleged, "an Apache maiden cannot cut her hair until the Coming of Age ceremony which is held after the child reaches puberty."

The parents, Danny and Tina Ponce, claimed they were entitled to bystander damages resulting from “the sensory perception of the injury to their daughter.”

But after the complaint was filed in March, the Mescaleros disenrolled Danny Ponce and his daughter because they do not have the quantum of tribal blood required for membership. “Christina Ponce no longer has any reasonable expectation of participation in a Tribal ceremony,” Turner Films said.

The defense also argued that the parents' claim for negligent infliction of emotional distress should be dismissed for lack of evidence that “they suffered a severe emotional shock.” The Ponces did not oppose the summary judgment motion.

By Matthew Heller
12/30/06